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Maahes/Mihos {God of the Week}

Maahes (also spelled Mihos, Miysis, Mios, Maihes, and Mahes) was an ancient Egyptian lion-headed god of war, whose name means "he who is true beside her". He was seen as the son of the feline goddess (Bast in Lower Egypt or Sekhmet in Upper Egypt) whose nature he shared. Maahes was a deity associated with war and weather, as well as that of knives, lotuses, and devouring captives. His cult was centred in Taremu and Per-Bast.

The first recorded reference to Maahes is from the New Kingdom. Some Egyptologists have suggested that Maahes was of foreign origin; [3] indeed there is some evidence that he may have been identical with the lion-god Apedemak worshipped in Nubia and Egypt's Western Desert.

As a lion-god and patron, he was also considered the son of Ra and of Bast,[4] the feline war goddess and patron of Lower Egypt as well as Sekhmet, the lioness war goddess and patron of Upper Egypt. Since his cult was centred in Per-Bast (Bubastis in Greek) or in Taremu (Leontopolis in Greek), he was more known as the son of Bast. As he became a tutelary deity of Egypt, his father was said to be the chief male deity at the time - either Ptah, or Ra who had by this time already merged with Atum into Atum-Ra. In his role of son of Ra, Maahes fought the serpent Apep during Ra's nightly voyage.

Considered to have powerful attributes, feline deities were associated with the pharaohs, and became patrons of Egypt. The male lion hieroglyphic was used in words such as "prince", "mashead", "strength", and "power".

Name
The name of Maahes begins with the hieroglyphs for the male lion, although in isolation it also means (one who can) see in front. However, the first glyph also is part of the glyph for Ma'at, meaning truth and order and so it came to be that Maahes was considered to be the devourer of the guilty and protector of the innocent. Some of the titles of Maahes were Lord of Slaughter,[5] Wielder of the Knife, and The Scarlet Lord.

Depictions
Maahes was pictured as a man with the head of a male lion, occasionally holding a knife and wearing the double crown of Egypt, or the atef crown. [6] Sometimes he was identified with Nefertem[7] and was shown with a bouquet of lotuses near him, but he also was depicted as a lion devouring a captive.

Sacred animals
Tame lions were kept in a temple dedicated to Maahes in Taremu, where Bast/Sekhmet were worshipped, his temple was adjacent to that of Bast. [8] The ancient Greek historian Aelian wrote: "In Egypt, they worship lions, and there is a city called after them. (...) The lions have temples and numerous spaces in which to roam; the flesh of oxen is supplied to them daily (...) and the lions eat to the accompaniment of song in the Egyptian language", thus the Greek name of the city Leontopolis was derived.

Maahes was thought to be the guardian of sacred places, and the one who attacks captive enemies. He protected the innocent dead and condemned the damned. He was thought to be one of Osiris' executioners, and a defender of the solar barque against the attack of the snake-demon Apep and his followers. He protected the pharaoh while he was in battle, just as he protected the sun god Ra. He was also a god, and a protector of the horizon, due to his leonine form - lions were connected to the horizon by the Egyptian mind. He was also thought to be the personification of the summer heat, just as the Eye of Ra - different lioness goddesses - were thought to represent the burning heat of the sun.

(...)

Thought to be the son of either Bast and Ptah at Per-Bast (Bubastis) or the son of Sekhmet and either Ptah or the sun god Ra. In the tale of "The Taking of Joppa", Thothmose III was called 'Maahes, Son of Sekhmet'. The Egyptians confused the two goddesses, and their children. He was linked to Nefertem and Shesmu, both being lion-headed deities who were also related to perfumes and oils. Nefertem and Maahes were probably especially confused by the Egyptians due to their respective mothers - Sekhmet and Bast. He was also connected with the war-god Onuris as well as with the sky god Shu. There are suggestions that he might have been an assimilation of the Nubian lion-god Apedemak.

(...)

His cult centre was at Leontopolis in Lower Egypt, but he was worshiped around Upper Egypt, and in Nubia. Maahes was depicted in the temple of Debod, which was moved to Madrid, Spain, before the Aswan Dam building would have flooded and destroyed it. Osorkon III (Dynasty XXII) build a temple to him in Per-Bast (Bubastis) while Nay-ta-hut (Leontopolis) housed a necropolis for lions, his sacred animal. Other major cult centres for Maahes included Djeba (Utes-Hor, Behde, Edfu), Iunet (Dendera), Meroe (the royal city of the Meroitic rulers of Nubia) and the Bahriya and Siwa Oases

Other Names: similar to the Furies of Greek mythology being called "The Kindly Ones," Mahes was rarely referred to by name and was instead referred to as "The Lord of the Massacre." His name is also found spelled "Maahes." Patron of: punishment of those who violate Maat, the universal order.

Appearance: a man with the head of a young lion, often shown carrying a knife.

Description: Another feline deity, Mahes was the son of Bast and Ptah and may be an Egyptian assimilation of the Nubian lion-god Apedemak. When Maat was violated, the other gods would work to set it aright, but Mahes would be sent to punish the one who had committed the transgression. Interestingly enough, he encompassed his own opposite, and his name was invoked as a protection for the innocent.

Worship: Cult center at Leontopolis, also worshipped alongside Bast at Bubastis. The Greeks also worshipped him for a time, possibly aligning him with the Furies.

His name can be translated directly as "(one who can) see in front". However, the first part of his name is also the first part of the word "ma" (lion) as well as the verb "maa" (to see) and it is spelled with the symbol of a sickle for the sound "m", linking it with the word Ma´at (truth or balance). As a result, another possible translation is "True Before Her" (referring to Ma´at).

However, Maahes was rarely referred to by name. Rather he was usually referred to by his most common epithet, "The Lord of the Massacre". He was given a number of other bloodcurdling epithets including; "Wielder of the Knife", "The Scarlet Lord" (referring to the blood of his victims) and "Lord of Slaughter". Yet, he was not seen as a force of evil. He punished those who violated the rules of Ma´at and so promoted order and justice. Thus he was also known as the "Avenger of Wrongs" and "Helper of the Wise Ones". The Greeks associated him with the Furies (who were also potentially dangerous but not specifically evil) and gave him their epithet "The Kindly One."

Epithets:
"Wielder of the Knife"
"Helper of the Wise Ones"
"The Initiator," (I wonder where this came from?)
"Lord of the Slaughter"
"Manifestor of Will"
"Avenger of Wrongs"
"Lord of the Land of Daughters" (apparently there is a place in the Duat where his priestesses reside?)
"Scarlet Lord"
"Great of Roaring" (c3 hmhm)
"Great of Strength" (c3 phty/ wr phty)
"Powerful of Arms" (nHt cwy)
"Raging Lion."
"Lion with the Ferocious Gaze"
and "Soul of Bast"

**

Lion

"The Lion"
"The Living Lion"

Attributes

"He of the Strong Body"
"He of the Great Power"
"Whose Arms are Strong"
"Whose eyes are reddened"
"He who stands on his knee"
"Who is strong with his arms"

Relationships

"The Son of Bast"
"The Heir of the Pillar"
"The heir of the pillars"
The Son of the Goddess"
"He who advocates his father Re"
"He who seeks the leg of his father"
"He who advocates for his father Re"
"He who brings the leg of the one who has sired him"

Lord

"The Lord of Debod"
"The Lord of Bubastis"
"The Lord of the Foreign Lands"
"The Lord of the 10th Nome of Upper Egypt"
"The Lord of Xois, resp. of the Nome of Xois"

Principal

"The Principal of the Gods"
"The Principal of the site of stabbing"
"The Principal of the Temple of Bast in Lower Egypt"
"The Principal of the site of the part/share of the two Lords"
"The Principal of the divine farmland (in the 18. Nome of Lower Egypt)"

Nobel God

"The Noble God"
"The Noble Power"

Violent God

"He of the loud roar"
"He of the great roar"
"He of the grim face"
"He who robs hearts"
"He who devours hearts"
"He of the great respect"
"He of the raging moment"
"He who lives off the blood of Rechit"
"He who dwells/is in the midst of the oasis"
"He who pursuits the rebels with swift strides"
"He who dwells/is with a grim face amongst his enemies"

Punishing God

"He who drives off Set"
"He who kills adversaries"
"He who breaks rebellion"
"He who kills the nile horse"
"He who kills enemies on both shores"
"He who brings about the downfall of rebels"
"He who takes the blood of the associates of Set"
"Who drives his Gabelstoc into the back of his enemy"
"He who throws the gazelles of the desert down to the ground"
"He who stabs the rebels with his blazing breath/breath of blaze"

Protecting God

"The Great Protector"
"He who tramples down"
"He who protects Foreigners"
"He who protects sanctuaries/shrines from bad/evil"
"He who dwells/is in midst of the throne seat of Heru"
"He who drives off the enemy from the great throne seat"
"He who drives off the enemies from the Island of Raging"

(thanks to Taysat for translating these from Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen)

Maahes or Mihos, the lion-god, son of Bast, called Miysis by the Greeks. He is portrayed as a man with the head of a lion, sometimes wearing the Atef crown. He is sometimes also portrayed as a lion devouring a captive.

He first appears as a deity in the story "The Taking of Joppa", in which Thutmosis III is referred to as "Maahes, son of Sekhmet". He is often confused with Sekhmet because at times he is shown holding a khopesh (knife or sword) or two. He is a war-god, and in this role is associated with other war-like deities such as Horus and Nefertem, whose floral head-dress Maahes sometimes wears. He is the guardian of sacred places and an aggressor who attacks and mauls a captive enemy. His local roots were at Leontopolis (modern Tell el-Muqdam) in nome 11 of Lower Egypt. The Pharaoh Osorkon III (Dynasty XXII) erected a temple to him at Bubastis, the town sacred to the god's mother. Mihos' name is also found in papyri of the late New Kingdom.